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That is just an irrelevant convention. We are in a recession, whatever the GDP says. Otherwise, language would be impossible.
by pfortuny 4y ago
That is just an irrelevant convention. We are in a recession, whatever the GDP says.
Otherwise, language would be impossible.
- pavlov 4y agoWhat is your definition of recession if not the conventional one?
- pfortuny 4y agoI know when I see it. What is the definition of “being sick”? You can see prices going up, people losing huge amounts of buying power, companies laying off people, all at the same time and almost none of the opposite. Whatever the time it takes, that is a recession.
- criddell 4y agoOr maybe it's stagflation right now and a recession is coming in 2024?
- Apocryphon 4y agoGood point, recessions and depressions aren't the only type of economic malaise.
- pavlov 4y agoYou don't see anyone hiring in America? Everywhere in New York I see "help wanted" signs. That's the problem with applying "I know it when I see it" to an economy. Anecdotes from our daily lives and viral social media posts don't even begin to tell the full picture of activity among 330 million people. And the aggregate indicators are necessarily lagging.
- jazzyjackson 4y ago> Everywhere in New York I see "help wanted" signs. if they had been hiring, they wouldn't need the help wanted signs - now when i see help wanted i think "doesn't offer high enough wages to get help"
- ironlake 4y ago>language would be impossible Actually, as you're seeing, defining words based on how you feel makes language more difficult than just understanding what the article is about. The Economist is using the word "recession" to mean what economists define it as: two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. So what's the point of commenting on the article and then rejecting the article's assumption? If someone wrote an article on compilers, would you jump in to say that Microsoft Word is a compiler in your heart? The accepted definition of the word "recession" is not "how pfortuny feels about his financial prospects whatever the GDP says."
- boardwaalk 4y agoThis comment sort of messed with my brain. We have a somewhat sane definition, but we can’t use said definition because we don’t feel like it, and that makes everything clearer (“language would be impossible”). Feel free to define your own terms, don’t pretend terms are undefinable…